Sr. Thermal Engineer - Fluids Analysis, AI Satellites (Starmind) Verified today

Sr. Thermal Engineer (Fluids Analysis), AI Satellites (Starmind)

SpaceX is developing Starmind, a constellation of satellites capturing solar energy in space to power low-cost, high-performance AI compute for Earth. With dense compute payloads dissipating hundreds of kilowatts, the thermal system must efficiently transfer heat to large deployable radiators under solar load, eclipse, and multi-mode AI duty cycles. No capable cooling architecture has been flown at this scale.

You will join the Starmind Thermal team, which owns the satellite cooling stack end-to-end. As a Senior Thermal Engineer focused on fluids analysis, you own conjugate heat transfer and thermal-fluid analysis of cold plates, heat exchangers, and radiator channels and manifolds. You own the system 0-D/1-D thermal-fluid network that sets flow split, pressure-drop budget, loop temperature rise, and pump operating point. You co-evolve geometry and flow path with mechanical and fluid-systems owners under tight feedback from manufacturing and test.

Responsibilities

• Own conjugate heat-transfer (CHT) and thermal-fluid analysis of high-performance cold plates, heat exchangers, and radiator channels for Starmind satellites
• Own the system 0-D/1-D thermal-fluid network that sizes and balances the cooling loop: flow split, pressure-drop budget, loop temperature rise, pump operating point
• Drive cooling-loop architecture trades with hardware and vehicle-level thermal teammates
• Co-evolve geometry, materials and processes with hardware owners to find mass-producible, efficient thermal solutions
• Predict component and system performance under wide range of flow and thermal conditions
• Own pre-test prediction, test design, and model-test correlation for fluid component and integrated thermal tests
• Automate analysis workflows for re-running trades as designs and boundary conditions change

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical, aerospace, or related engineering discipline
• 5 or more years of professional experience in fluids, CFD, or thermal analysis

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Master's degree in mechanical, aerospace, or related engineering discipline
• Steady/transient conjugate heat-transfer CFD of liquid-cooled or high-heat-flux hardware (STAR-CCM+, ANSYS Fluent/CFX, or equivalent)
• Hand-calculation checks and engineering judgment on mesh, turbulence modeling, and model fidelity
• Hands-on hardware testing inclusive of instrumentation selection and model correlation
• Relevant manufacturing techniques and experience pushing their constraints
• Watertight CFD geometry (Siemens NX or equivalent)
• Package/board-level tools as secondary (Icepak, Flotherm)
• 0-D/1-D thermal-fluid network modeling to size and balance cooling loops
• Scripting analysis workflows and post-processing (Python preferred)

Additional Requirements

• Ability to work extended hours or weekends as needed for mission-critical deadlines
• Some travel may occasionally be required
• Must be a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, Refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157, or Asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158, or eligible to obtain required authorization from U.S. Department of State for ITAR compliance